Time for a new post...

We spent the weekend with Jeremiah's parents. Sandy had generously offered to babysit for us so we could go out for a belated Valentine's Day date. It was so nice to have an evening to ourselves to talk and just be together. Things have been so busy lately that we tend to crash on the couch in the evenings and kind of stare at each other in a daze until bedtime.

As Sofi gets older and her activities and school become more time/energy/mental powers consuming I've noticed myself more and more desperate for time to spend "re-connecting" with Jeremiah. (makes me sound like a cooky marriage counselor) He's so much better at 'big picture' stuff and helps me keep sane about all that we're trying to do in homeschool and other stuff. A good, close, vibrant relationship with him is essential to my ability to do my part in the job that we have before us, of educating and raising our children to be intelligent, Godly and kind people. When I begin to let the cares of my day loom large in my head and heart well into the evening, all my conversation with my husband starts to take on a tinge of complaining. If I focus instead on him, on our relationship (getting him a drink, a shoulder rub, ask about his day, talk about something interesting I read today, etc), as he walks through the door, I usually find that by the time dinner is over, the cares of the day have resumed their normal proportions and I no longer feel like I'm going down for the third time.

Another reason I really want to train myself in this area: what do I want him to anticipate as he's driving home? Surely not an exhausted, stressed out, needy woman! I want him to be driving home thinking about that backscratching he's headed for! I want him to love coming home, to prefer it to every other place he is during the day. This is part of keeping our relationship the most important part of our family-- therefore the strongest. A house is only as strong as it's foundation and the marriage is the foundation of a family.

So, now I have to go get dinner started and the house clean so I can practice what I "preach"!